Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

A View from the Front Line: How Coronavirus Impacts the Media Industry

31/03/2020

A View from the Front Line: How Coronavirus Impacts the Media Industry By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 - 11:41 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

IABM and the DPP collaborated to host an international webcast on Thursday, March 26, responding to the thirst for experience and knowledge regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the media industry.

The event began with IABM CEO Peter White analysing results from its new Coronavirus Impact Tracker. Summarising the early research, White noted that, from a supply chain perspective the area for growth is in connectivity, not surprisingly, with a high demand for bandwidth and connectivity as people move to remote working and remote production.

That which is growing: virtualisation, remote production and the use of AI and machine learning. These are the three areas with key investment in the transition from SDI to IP, said White.

All of these will help the new paradigm shift we're seeing, an irreversible tech move that is going to be accelerated by this [coronavirus] event. The pandemic will have the impact of accelerating these changes.

The cancellation of live events is putting pressure on the sports industry, and a major source of advertising revenue of course in what was a quadrennial year. We're seeing a shift towards solutions that enhance fan engagement as a result.

The cancellation of productions is putting pressure on the post side of the industry and may spur creative innovation and new programming ideas. And obviously there's a hunger for live news currently, even more so than normal, leading to a higher demand for collaborative new solutions such as the use of consumer video technology in the news.

Finally, the surge in demand for on-demand streaming consumption due to our lockdown measures is leading to a pressure on connectivity resources and to Netflix and others cutting streaming quality. Obviously these solutions are good for those providing compression products, noted White.

DPP managing director Mark Harrison

DPP managing director Mark Harrison hosted a discussion among companies in the television and video production space, and wondered what lessons we can start to learn about the impact of coronavirus on the way we work and the nature of work.

Nutopia chief operating officer Helena Tait said, I've long been an advocate of people having the flexibility to work. I dislike presenteeism' intensely.

I also think that with budgets getting tighter and advertising shrinking, especially after this crisis, broadcasters are going to be looking for us to cut our overheads. And we're going to have find sensible ways of working.

We need flexibility in terms of ways of working. It helps somewhat in terms of transport if over the next months we can put into place that we not only work remotely within the same city, for example, but that we can start remote shooting and getting that data back.

Luckily the backbone of our business is pretty much based in the cloud, said Nemorin chief executive officer Pete Ferguson, so we did have contingency plans and do use a lot of online software. But at the same time we did see some productions cancelled. We were right on the brink of shooting in Europe, Mexico and Los Angeles, all back to back for a big client but unfortunately that got pulled.

Some shoots have been postponed, unfortunately, but post production is very much happening, using a mixture of online services and hard drives that are being collected from the office. We sent an email around to our staff about a week before [UK] lockdown, asking them just to be ready to keep working in the event that London was shut down. I remember thinking at the time, gosh that's a scary scenario', but of course it's the new normal now.

Yes we have gone through a real feeling of panic - but also there's a certain feeling of excitement about the future, said Ferguson. I think there's a real spirit of collaboration now.

Obviously we're going to see a sharp dip to the economy in general, but I think once everyone starts to feel healthy again it's going to go the other way very quickly and money will be made available. But people are shocked by this - it has scarred the industry, I believe.

Keith Scholey, co-CEO of Silverback Films said, I think we saw this thing coming in the middle of January. We did make some contingency plans in terms of our shoots and people working from home - but the speed of this thing has been shocking.

I remember the moment when Donald Trump said that Europeans can't go to America. That was the point I thought ah ok, this is all going to happen a lot faster'.

We had crews in Indonesia, Uganda, Hawaii, Australia - all over the place. We had plans to try to keep them going, especially in places where it seemed relatively safe. But it quite quickly became clear that we needed to bring everyone back - and we got them all back in time.

Now the question is: how long does this go on? When does the world open up again? Obviously Donald Trump is promising to open up by Easter - let's watch that one! When can we get back to business and when can we start travelling again?

The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? - Keith Scholey

I think the interesting thing about this whole disease is it seems a lot of people can go through without being affected but some are terribly badly affected. What we're going to get into is a process where lots of people have had it, and the lockdowns are going to open up - but you're still going to get it. The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? he
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/03/31/a-view-from-the-front-line-how-...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

24/03/2026

FDJ United Leaves Nothing to Chance with UHD Lottery Prod...

Grass Valley has strengthened its long-standing relationship with ImSoPROD, the TV production entity of the FDJ United, with the deployment of Grass Valley LDX ...

24/03/2026

Utah Scientific to Showcase a Variety of Hybrid SDI IP In...

At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Utah Scientific will spotlight its expanding portfolio of hybrid SDI/IP routing, conversion, control, and signal management s...

24/03/2026

Miri V410 Live 4K Encoder-Decoder to Make North American...

Fresh off its global reveal at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, the new V410 live 4K encoder/decoder from Miri Technologies Inc. will make its North American debut at the...

24/03/2026

Cinegy delivers software defined television for the real...

Cinegy GmbH, premier provider of software-defined television technology, will show how its solutions answer the real challenges facing content creators and broa...

24/03/2026

ArtSound FM Futureproofs with DHD Audio Production Consol...

Canberra-based radio and online broadcast network ArtSound FM (https://artsound.fm/) has invested in DHD audio mixing consoles for two new studios at its headqu...

24/03/2026

IBC unveils 2026 Accelerator projects tackling industry c...

IBC today announced the nine projects selected for its 2026 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, bringing together organisations from across broadcast, strea...

24/03/2026

Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its Log...

Mediaproxy, the global standard for software-based IP compliance monitoring and multiviewing solutions, will showcase the next generation of its industry-leadin...

24/03/2026

Cegep de Jonquiere and Calrec take five with a substantia...

Underscoring its global reputation as one of Canada's most renowned colleges for television production, the C gep de Jonqui re public college in Qu bec has ...

24/03/2026

Synamedia launches industry-first edge watermarking solut...

Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced the launch of the industry's first edge watermarking solution that enables faster disruption of pi...

24/03/2026

Experience Commerce Wins Social Media Mandate for Fintech...

Experience Commerce, a leading full-service digital marketing agency and part of the Cheil SWA Group, has secured the annual social media mandate for Fiat Payme...

24/03/2026

FCC Approves TV Station License Transfers to Gray

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/03/2026

Study: Globally HBO Max Is Most Widely Bundled Streaming Service

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/03/2026

Charter Communications Names John Lee Head Of Intelligence Ventures

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/03/2026

Intinor introduces enhanced SRT monitoring, HDR transport and NDI Advanced support at NAB Show 2026

Intinor introduces enhanced SRT monitoring, HDR transport and NDI Advanced suppo...

24/03/2026

Miri V410 Live 4K Encoder/Decoder to Make North American Debut at 2026 NAB Show

Miri V410 Live 4K Encoder/Decoder to Make North American Debut at 2026 NAB Show Brie Clayton March 23, 2026 0 Comments Powerful new solution for strea...

24/03/2026

Advancing Open Source AI, NVIDIA Donates Dynamic Resource Allocation Driver for GPUs to Kubernetes Community

Artificial intelligence has rapidly emerged as one of the most critical workload...

23/03/2026

Professional Fighters League & U-Next Renew Multi-year Partnership to Broadcast PFL Events Live in Japan

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has renewed its multi-year partnership wi...

23/03/2026

The Snow League Announces Google Cloud as Official Cloud and AI Partner to Power Personalized Fan Experiences Worldwide

The Snow League has named Google Cloud as its Official Cloud and AI Partner. The...

23/03/2026

Chyron Appoints Eric Wolff as Director of Venues Sales, North America

Chyron has appointed Eric Wolff as Director of Venues Sales, North America. Wolff previously served as Director of Broadcast Operations & Media Production for T...

23/03/2026

Chicago Sports Network, WCIU To Simulcast 10 White Sox Games

Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) and Weigel Broadcasting's WCIU (The U, ch. 26.1) will simulcast 10 Chicago White Sox games during the 2026 season, the compani...

23/03/2026

Cosm Appoints Jon Werbeck as VP, Head of Sponsorships

Cosm has appointed Jon Werbeck as Vice President, Head of Sponsorships. He will report to Corey Breton, Head of Venues, and will focus on corporate sponsorship ...

23/03/2026

CP Communications Partners with Mark Roberts Motion Control to Bring Robotic Camera Systems to Florida

CP Communications has announced a partnership with Mark Roberts Motion Control (...

23/03/2026

NAB 2026: Creators, Media Leaders, Storytelling Legends and AI Step Into the Spotlight as Lineup is Unveiled

NAB Show 2026, taking place April 18-22 (exhibits April 19-22) at the Las Vegas ...

23/03/2026

Bay FC Announces Multi-Year Partnership with Victory+ as the Official Streaming Partner

Bay FC and free streaming platform Victory have announced a partnership through...

23/03/2026

MLB, Google Cloud Debut AI-Powered, Real-Time Game Analysis With Scout Insights' in MLB Gameday

Gemini AI models will surface hidden context around pitches, matchups, rare stat...

23/03/2026

Behind the Mic: NBC Sports Announces MLB Opening Day On Air Lineup, Featuring Orel Hershiser, Al Leiter and More.

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

23/03/2026

SVG All-Stars: Alex McKeen, Senior Manager, Strategic Production Planning, TNT Sports

Growing from broadcast engineer to strategic planner, this Ithaca College grad h...

23/03/2026

Announcing the 2026 Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund Grantees

16 Science-Focused Nonfiction Projects Selected for Funding LOS ANGELES, CA, March 23, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films announced toda...

23/03/2026

RL10 and Orion Main Engine are Key to NASA's Historic Artemis II Journey to the Moon

An auxiliary target has been affixed to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage f...

23/03/2026

Scripps To Launch Scripps Sports Network Streaming Channel

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/03/2026

IBEW Calls for Scrutiny of Skydance-CBS Layoffs and Proposed CNN Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/03/2026

Bruno Mars Risk It All Music Video Captures Timeless Text...

Pro8mm, the Super 8 experts, provided cameras, Super 8 movie film, and scanning services for Bruno Mars' Risk It All music video. The debut single from Br...

23/03/2026

Matthews Intros Lightweight Aluminum Grid Clamps

Matthews, introduces their first aluminum grid clamp collection, engineered for the rigging needs of film, television and live production. Combining light weigh...

23/03/2026

'Too Hot to Handle: Italy' Reignites for a Second Season With the Special Participation of Selvaggia Lucarelli

Back to All News Too Hot to Handle: Italy Reignites for a Second Season With th...

23/03/2026

How Autonomous AI Agents Become Secure by Design With NVIDIA OpenShell

Autonomous agents mark a new inflection point in AI. Systems are no longer limited to generating responses or reasoning through tasks. They can take action: Age...

22/03/2026

Live-Action Sins of Kujo' Premieres April 2: Main Trailer and Key Art Debut

Back to All News Live-Action Sins of Kujo' Premieres April 2: Main Trailer and Key Art Debut Entertainment 22 March 2026 GlobalJapan Link copied to cl...

21/03/2026

Survey: Fans Prefer Sports on Broadcast Over Streaming

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Graham Promotes Stephanie Slagle to VP, CRO & GM of WDIV Local 4

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Study: Repurposed Traditional TV Ads for CTV Is a Missed Opportunity

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Carr Backs Trump Army/Navy Game Executive Order

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Opponents File Emergency FCC Petition to Block Nexstar/Tegna Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Eight States Ask for Court to Stop Nexstar/Tegna Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/03/2026

Cine Gear Connect NY Ramps Up for March 28 - 2026

Cine Gear Connect NY, presented by Universal Production Services, is filling in the slate for a full day of panels, peers, learning the latest, and mixing it up...

21/03/2026

Studio Technologies Debuts New StudioComm System at NAB 2026

Studio Technologies Debuts New StudioComm System at NAB 2026 Brie Clayton March 20, 2026 0 Comments StudioComm Model 794 Central Controller and Model ...

21/03/2026

Restoration Christian Fellowship Captures Worship Music Videos with PYXIS 12K

Restoration Christian Fellowship Captures Worship Music Videos with PYXIS 12K Brie Clayton March 20, 2026 0 Comments PYXIS' open gate provides cre...

20/03/2026

NAB 2026: Net Insight unveils Market-Leading JPEG XS at Scale for Live IP Media Production

Net Insight will introduce a JPEG XS solution for full IP environments at NAB Sh...

20/03/2026

NAB 2026: LTN and Harmonic Expand Partnership to Support FAST Growth and C-Band Migration

LTN has expanded its technology partnership with Harmonic ahead of the FCC's...

20/03/2026

NAB 2026: Solid State Logic to Preview SSL Live V6.2 with New SolidPitch Effect and Major Workflow Enhancements

Solid State Logic will preview SSL Live V6.2 at NAB Show, booth C6907. The softw...

20/03/2026

NAB 2026: Fujifilm Announces Availability of FUJINON UA22x4.8BERD 4K Broadcast Zoom Lens

FUJIFILM North America Corporation's Optical Devices Division has announced ...

20/03/2026

NAB 2026: Fujifilm Announces Development of FUJINON UA16x4BERD, UA30x7.3BERD, and UA94x8.7BESM 4K Broadcast Zooms

FUJIFILM North America Corporation's Optical Devices Division has announced ...